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Sunday, August 1, 2010

The Potty Chronicles

Ah, potty-training. Now that I'm in the midst of it I can say with certainty that it is the most difficult part of parenting yet!

We've had some marginal success in the past couple of weeks. I put up a potty chart in Will's room and told him that for every time he just sat on the potty I would give him one sticker, and if he did anything on it he would earn two stickers. At five stickers, we would go to the toy store and pick out a little prize. Last weekend in PA, with six stickers on the chart, we went to Walmart and picked out a talking Woody Doll from Toy Story! He asked if a Buzz was going to come with his Woody Doll and I explained that he had to earn enough stickers to bring Buzz home. I then upped the ante, and told him that he would earn one sticker for every time he did something on the potty. And when we got to twelve stickers we would go back to Walmart to get Buzz.

Today we're at 11 stickers on the chart, most of them being earned yesterday. We decided to go for broke yesterday and put Will in big-boy underpants. He loved the idea, especially since he had chosen the underpants himself. (Toy Story! Mickey! Cars!) However, by the time I went out at lunchtime to run some errands, there was only one pair of underpants left. It got better as the day went on, he would suddenly realize he had to pee and then run for the potty, not making it. But at least he was running for it! This morning however, he seems content to pee in the underpants. I asked him the last time why he didn't say anything about having to pee, and he said "Because I was playing!" So we are back to the pull-ups, but are continuing to set the timer and usher him to the bathroom every thirty minutes. It makes for a really loooooong weekend!

1 comment:

ARGH, potty training. I think, despite the messiness, throwing them in big-kid underpants is the way to go. Sure, you spend all damn weekend cleaning up messes, but I think it does help them get the message. (I think I remember at this stage of the game, I invested in roughly 23 packages of big-girl underpants in a variety of cartoon characters from Target.)

Hang in there, he'll get it soon! Good work on the stickers! (Preschoolers will sell their soul for a sticker, I think.)